Expert Panel on Climate and Health Vulnerability, Capacity and Adaptation Assessment (VCA)

Health and climate policies should be based on the best available data and systematic assessment of current and future health risks and adaptation capacity among vulnerable populations and within health services. Climate and health VCAs are the cornerstone of developing evidence-based, just and healthy climate-related policies.

This panel on planning and implementing climate and health VCAs features leading VCA experts, policy-makers and scientists. World leading VCA expert, Professor Kris Ebi, will share her experiences of supporting countries in Central America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific in assessing their vulnerabilities and implementing adaptation policies. Joining Prof. Ebi in the panel will be local experts with real world experience of generating and applying evidence of the health impacts of climate change in Australian policy and program initiatives.

The panel will be followed by networking and refreshments from 3:30 - 4pm and is hosted by Melbourne Climate Futures and Melbourne School of Population and Global Health in conjunction with the Climate Collaborative Action for Transformative Change in Health and Healthcare (CATCH) Lab.

Plenary speaker:

Kristie Ebi is Professor of Global Health and Environmental and Occupational Health Services with the Department of Global Health, University of Washington. She has been conducting research and practice on the health risks of climate variability and change for 25 years, focusing on understanding sources of vulnerability; estimating current and future health risks of climate change; designing adaptation policies and measures to reduce risks in multi-stressor environments; and estimating the health co-benefits of mitigation policies.

Panelists:

Dr Georgia Behrens: Assistant Director, National Health, Sustainability and Climate Unit. Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care

Dr Vanessa Prescott: Head of the Prevention and Environmental Health Unit, Australian Institute for Health and Welfare

Siska Hester: Manager Climate Change and Environment, Victorian Department of Health

Siska Hester is the Manager of Climate Change Program Delivery at Climate Health Victoria. Siska is an environmental engineer with 20 years of experience working as a sustainability professional across public and private organisations. Siska’s focus is on identifying and delivering practical projects that create improved sustainability and climate outcomes.

Dr Alexei Trundle: Associate Director (International) of the Melbourne Centre for Cities, The University of Melbourne

Dr Alexei Trundle is the Associate Director – International of the Melbourne Centre for Cities and has worked on urban climate resilience and sustainable urban development in the Pacific for the more than a decade. He is currently leading the University of Melbourne’s development of Climate Vulnerability Assessments for four Pacific Island Countries, feeding into their National Adaptation Plans, and has an ongoing role supporting UN-Habitat’s climate change work in the region.

Moderator

Professor Kathryn Bowen, Deputy Director of Melbourne Climate Futures and Director of the Climate CATCH Lab

Professor Kathryn Bowen is Professor of Climate, Environment and Global Health in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, and Deputy Director of Melbourne Climate Futures, University of Melbourne. She is Director of the newly formed University of Melbourne Climate CATCH (Collaborative Action for Transformative Change in Health and Healthcare) Lab.

Kathryn is a leading, internationally-recognised expert on the science and policy of sustainability (particularly climate change) and global health issues, with substantial experience in original public health research, science assessment, capacity development and policy advice. She is regularly commissioned by international bilateral and multilateral agencies (e.g. WHO, UNEP, UNDP, ADB, GIZ, DFAT, USAID, KOICA) to provide technical advice and co-design global health solutions for sustainable futures. She is the lead technical adviser to DFAT on health and climate change, where she has pioneered the inclusion of climate change solutions in national health planning processes through development funding in multiple countries in the Indo-Pacific region. She has recently been appointed to the Asian Development Bank’s Technical Advisory Group on Climate Change and Human Health, and the Green Climate Fund’s climate and health portfolio review process.